Month: October 2024

The inevitability of Patrick Mahomes struck again, and as the now three-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback hit Mecole Hardman in the end zone, he shattered the hearts of San Francisco 49ers fans everywhere.

After a season of dominance in which San Francisco ran through the NFC like hoisting the Lombardi was Kyle Shanahan’s destiny, the 49ers head coach fell in overtime of the Super Bowl for the second time in his career. While this time around wasn’t nearly as shocking as the 28-3 comeback of the New England Patriots over the Atlanta Falcons — the only other Super Bowl to reach overtime — it hurts all the same.

Super Bowl odds once again doubted Mahomes and Andy Reid, with the Niners opening as two to 2.5-point favorites at most books and …

NFL betting is one third of the way through the 2024 schedule, giving bookies more than enough data to make the NFL Week 7 odds razor sharp.

Don’t fret. Our one advantage over the oddsmakers is that they have to set spreads and totals for every game on the board. We get to pick and choose our NFL picks and predictions each week. 

In order to give those bets a shot at cashing in, you need to get the best of the number. That means jumping on NFL odds opening lines and sometimes waiting for the markets to move, in order to buyback the early opinion. 

Here are some spreads and totals for Week 7 you’ll want to “bet now” and some you may want to “bet later,” depending on your opinions.

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The 2022 MLB Hall of Fame class will be announced on January 25, 2022, and this year’s ballot is like a potato skin at T.G.I. Friday’s…loaded to all hell. We got storylines galore with all-time greats like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens; legendary newcomers with people like David Ortiz and Alex Rodriguez; others with incredible peaks who flamed out quickly, and with the emergence of the “ character clause” involving PED users as well as Curt Schilling for insensitive comments he’s made in the past, predicting who will reach Cooperstown has become much more difficult. It feels like almost everybody on the ballot has some sort of character flaw holding them back from the Hall, and because of that it’s not unthinkable that we could have a second consecutive season with zero ne…

AND BREATHE

After 380 matches the Premier League season many thought might never end is finally over. At least 164 of those matches seem to have been contested by Crystal Palace and Burnley, often at a time when most normal folk are watching Pointless or Home and Away, wondering what to have for dinner and if perhaps it’s a little too early to uncork a bottle. The Fiver has long been of the opinion that it is never too early to uncork a bottle and what better reason does one need than to toast the efforts of players from Crystal Palace, Burnley and every other team, many of whom were flogged to within an inch of their lives for our amusement.

Yes, they are all mollycoddled, handsomely remunerated…

Oddest speech: Gianni Infantino

“Today I feel gay,” Fifa’s head told surprised journalists pre-tournament. “Today I feel disabled, today I feel a migrant worker.” He revealed he knew how migrants felt because “as a child [in Switzerland] I was bullied. I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian, so imagine”. His basic point: media should stop the “profoundly unjust” scrutiny of the hosts. “It’ll be the best World Cup ever.”

Best game: Argentina 2-2 Netherlands (4-3 pens)

It started unremarkably but ended in chaotic, bad-tempered and memorable style. Wout Weghorst’s two late…

Argentina won their second straight Copa América championship, overcoming Lionel Messi’s second-half leg injury to beat Colombia 1-0 on Sunday in extra-time.

Messi’s night ended early when he emotionally exited the field in the 64th minute with an apparent leg injury on Sunday night, and cameras showed him later on the bench with a badly swollen right ankle.
The 37-year-old appeared to suffer a non-contact injury while running at full speed with the game at 0-0. Messi immediately looked toward the Argentina bench as he went to the ground and remained down for several minutes as he waited on the trainers to come out. He was helped to his feet and immediately took his shoe off his right foot.

Fans receive medical treatment at Copa Am…

How much tangible difference a manager makes on a baseball team over 162 games has never been quite nailed down. It’s generally thought the best ones might only add a couple wins, and a truly bad one might only take away a couple wins. Most are just there, which is kind of why front offices stopped really caring about hiring names. But what we might be answering for the first time this season is what happens to a team when you replace a manager who was asleep most of the time? It worked in A League of Their Own! Though that was just that manager waking up and paying attention. That wasn’t an option for the Chicago White Sox and Tony La Russa, given that he’s 143 years old. So the Sox replaced him completely with Pedro Grifol, formerly the bench coach of the Kansas City Royals. What…

The Dodgers have won seven straight division crowns, but remain title-free since 1988. Will either of those things change in 2020? Maybe! Of course, it’s possible that the Dodgers don’t win the West, but keep their title streak alive, if, you know, Major League Baseball has to pull the plug on this farce of a season. But let’s say that L.A., now with Mookie Betts on board, does play a full 60 games. Do they face any real challenges in the division? 2019 NL West Standings credits: The Dodgers’ worst 60-game stretch last year was 35-25, while the best 60-game stretches for the Giants and Rockies were 37-23. The Diamondbacks? 34-26. The Padres? 31-29. So it would take Los Angeles being at its worst, and a division rival at its best, for somebody else to finish first. It might be…